


Love is for children. And Natasha Romanov

by titleoftheperaltiagosextape



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Accidental Admission of Feelings, F/M, Friends to Lovers, I’m working through a lot of writer’s block here, Tags May Change, With A Twist, gimme a break, idk if i will add any more characters, if not i tried, it’s cute i think
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 18:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17565509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titleoftheperaltiagosextape/pseuds/titleoftheperaltiagosextape
Summary: Steve and Natasha are definitely friends. Good friends. But then one admits feelings for the other, and everything gets messy and confusing.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I have had writers’ block for literal months and this is the first thing I’ve written since about September last year. So it could be really shit. Sorry if it is, but I had the idea and couldn’t ignore it. I also had a lot of other ideas so more could be coming soon ;-)

Natasha burst into the room, closely followed by Sam and Wanda. The man they were there to see looked up from his hospital bed, smiling at his friends.  
“Hi guys, thanks for visiting—” he didn’t get to finish his sentence before Natasha reached the bed and gave him her most terrifying glare.  
“No. Don’t act like it’s all fine, and you in this bed was just a minor slip up. It was close and you know it. I was close to losing you.” She yelled, tears in her eyes, for once not afraid of showing emotion. Steve looked behind her and saw their friends looking on, upset.  
“Could you give us a minute please?” He asked. They nodded and slipped out of the room. He finally looked at the woman in front of him.  
“I know it was close, but I needed to save them. I couldn’t leave anyone there,” he explained.  
“Yes, but this wasn’t the same. It was your self-sacrificing side coming out again, like DC. Do you know how hard it was to hear you over the comms telling us to go, that you weren’t going to make it out in time?” Her face was angry but her voice shook, betraying her emotions. “We both know there was enough time, you fucking idiot!”  
Steve lowered his head, hearing the pain in her voice but not wanting to admit to his mistake.  
“Look, as the heads of the Avengers team, we have to make the hard choice sometimes. That was what I was doing. I’m sorry if you didn’t like it, but it was my choice.”  
“I am not losing the man I love just because he doesn’t think he means anything to anyone! There are so many people who care about you and don’t want to lose you. But you don’t want to admit that so you make these stupid decisions, hoping to push them away. Well, I’m sorry, but that won’t work with us. Especially not me!”  
There was silence in the room as Steve processed the information that had just been revealed. Natasha stood there, breathing heavily and feeling vulnerable after admitting her feelings.  
“You…..love me?” Steve spoke.  
“Yes. Look, I’m just gonna go and leave you to everyone else.” The woman hurried her words and left the room quickly. Her face devoid of emotion as she retreated back into her shell.  
Steve leaned back against the pillows and closed his eyes while his mind raced. He considered her his closest friend (besides Bucky but God knows where he is). And yet she loved him and he had never seen.  
He thought back on the time they’ve spent together. Had she really had feelings for him the whole time?  
“You okay, man?” Sam had come into the room while he was distracted. He shifted in the bed to face his friend.  
“I don’t know. I mean, Nat just said she loves me, and I didn’t have a clue before. What am I supposed to say to her?”  
“Say ‘I love you’ back?” Sam suggested, crossing his arms.  
“But I don’t know if I do love her! I never thought about my feelings for her, because I knew she wouldn’t want a relationship, thought she wouldn’t. I guess that’s changed now.” Steve ran a hand down his face.  
“I really don’t have any good advice for you, I mean, you know where I’m at with my own relationship issues,” he coughed uncomfortably at the reminder. “Look, she probably won’t talk to you for a few days, so you’ve got time to figure out your feelings and what you want to say to her.”  
“Yeah, that’s good. I have time. Okay. So how long before I’m allowed out of this bed, or do I have to break out?” Steve broke into a small smile.  
Sam shook his head, trying not to smile too. “They said only a couple hours alright? Think you can last that long?”  
Steve chuckled, “I’ll try.”

Once he was cleared to leave, the soldier decided to go to the park to clear his head. On the way he grabbed some food and a coffee, since he hadn’t eaten since before the mission.  
Steve leant forward on the bench, elbows on his knees while he drank and thought. He’d known Natasha for four years, and after hearing her ‘love is for children’ spiel, never thought about having feelings for her. He’d kept his thoughts squarely in the friendship realm. So now he had no idea what he felt for her. It was no secret that Peggy still held a place in his heart, but it had been a few years in his head, and she had lived her life without him. Maybe it was time he did the same. 


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha’s point of view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had already written most of this chapter when I uploaded the first one so I thought why not just finish it today! Hope you enjoy :-)  
> Also, there is a glitch on my iPad where the italics aren’t showing up. Basically the second and fourth parargraphs, where the first line is italics, are flashbacks if you couldn’t tell. I tried to edit it but there’s no guarantees.  
> EDIT: the glitch is sorted! It look me nearly half an hour but I solved it.

Natasha shut and locked her bedroom door. She leant against it and let a deep breath out. Why had she said that? Now she was going to get the ‘I don’t feel the same way about you but we can still be friends’ speech from Captain America of all people.  
How long had she had feelings for him without him knowing, and now after one little slip up - he just had to be the self-sacrificing guy – she had told him. Idiot. She had loved him right through the SHIELD is HYDRA mess, through Ultron (Bruce was cute and all, but she needed to control the Hulk, and seducing a target to gain control is kind of her thing), and he never knew.  
The spy sighed again and sat down to take her shoes off, lost in a memory.

 _There was a knock on the door and Natasha went to open it. Steve was stood there holding a DVD, looking confused._  
“ _I got it, I still don’t understand why I need to see it.”_  
_“It is a huge moment of pop culture history and it should be on your list.” She smirked and turned back to the food she was sorting onto plates. “Can you set it up for us, I got us Chinese since you liked it last time,” she called into the main room._  
_As she carried the plates in, she saw Steve sat on the couch reading the DVD case._  
_“But why is a film about a kid left alone at Christmas so popular?”_  
_She paused on her way to him, wondering why she felt her stomach fluttering when she saw him. He was just looking at her, friends do that. Why was her heart betraying her? Regaining her confidence, she gave him a look._  
_“Home Alone is an iconic film, and I don’t know if I can explain it, but people love the idea of setting a bunch of traps for burglars. And the fact that it’s done by a 10 year old is even funnier. Just watch it, okay?”_

Steve finally shut up and enjoyed the film after that, she remembered. That was the first time they hung out together outside of work, and it was to watch a Christmas film. The Avengers who didn’t get many happy Christmases. How fitting. 

_She turned just in time to see Steve walking up to the bar, a warm smile on his face that made her hands shake. She hadn’t seen him in a few months, due to him and Sam off checking leads for Bucky, and her spending time with – ie. terrifying the new recruits. Her feelings had clearly been amplified in his absence._  
_“Hey, Nat. What’ve you been up to while I’ve been gone? Anything interesting,” His voice made her melt. She cleared her throat and smiled mischievously._  
_“What do you think? There’s a group of my recent victims over there, wetting themselves at my smile right now. Clearly my work is done,” she laughed a little when he pretended to look stern but failed. He gave her a little nod of approval before turning to greet someone behind him._  
_Natasha slowly breathed out and carried on making his drink. She knew he’d come back, exhausted from talking to reporters and Tony’s friends. It made her feel warm knowing that he always found her in these parties to hide away with. Like she didn’t count as someone who exhausted him. Look at her, getting all sappy and sentimental. That’s something she never wanted._  
_“You up for a Christmas movie later?” He was back already. She handed him his drink and pretended to think. Like she’d ever say no to spending time with him._  
_“You think after all this we’ll want to stay up later?” She asked. Tony’s parties tended to run late, and neither of them had far to go – they were staying in the tower at Stark’s request – but that didn’t meant they wouldn’t be too tired to watch a film together._  
_“Well,” and now he started to look shy, “I thought we could just sneak off after we’ve talked to all the people we needed to.”_  
_“Wow, so now you’re a rebel.” She teased him. He laughed, but she could see a pink tint to his cheeks._  
_“I’ve actually always been one. I just hide it well,” As Steve spoke, he leaned closer as if telling her his biggest secret. “Plus, I have very good taste in movies.”_  
_“Oh do you? So we’re just ignoring your reaction to Home Alone?”_  
_“I liked it after! I just wasn’t sure when you suggested it, since I hadn’t heard of it!”_  
_“Alright, I’ll allow it. Only since you did love it eventually. So, what’s your film suggestion?” She gave in._  
_“White Christmas. Since it’s set just after my time, we can both see what it was like then.”_  
_Natasha nodded approvingly. “That’s actually a good one, Rogers. How long do we have to be here again?”_

As Natasha thought about the times she’d spent with Steve, she noticed that those moments were times when she thought her feelings were obvious. Even though she never expected him to return her feelings, a small part of her always assumed that he knew. It was a shock when she saw his face in that room and realised he was clueless. And now he wasn’t, what will happen to their friendship?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed writing this chapter. And I’m interested to see where this goes! I don’t know how many chapters there will be but I’m not going to drag it out for much longer. Probably just one or two more. Let me know what you thought of this chapter, I love getting comments!

**Author's Note:**

> What did you think? I didn’t write much for the first chapter, I know but I wrote the last paragraph and thought it was the perfect place to end it. Next chapter will be up as soon as I’ve finished writing it, so soon. Please comment if you have the time and let me know what you think!


End file.
